1996 TOYOTA TACOMA — Complaint #426683
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF filed August 25, 2003
NHTSA complaint #426683 (ODI reference 10033425) concerns a 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA and was filed on August 25, 2003. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 9, 2002. The vehicle had 90,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Washington based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA TACOMA cohort independently describe similar suspension:rear:springs:leaf spring assembly:leaf failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
BAD REAR LEAF SPRINGS, CAUSING EXTREME INSTABILITY. VEHICLE: 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA 4X4 REGULAR CAB, REGULAR BED, 4CYLINDER. THE MIDDLE REAR LEAF SPRING HAS A TENDANCY TO BREAK, EVEN UNDER LIGHT LOADS.*AK ON MY TRUCK, THE DRIVER'S SIDE BROKE AT AROUND 100,000 MILES, THE PASSENGER SIDE BROKE AT ABOUT 110,000 MILES. THIS CREATED TWO PROBLEMS: 1) THE REAR OF THE TRUCK TENDS TO LEAVE THE GROUND ON EVEN SMALL BUMPS. 2) THERE IS LESS WEIGHT TOWARDS THE FRONT OF THE VEHICLE, CAUSING A SERIOUS DEGRADATION IN STEERING CONTROL. MY SPRINGS BROKE WITH NO LOAD, I HEARD IT HAPPEN EACH TIME. I CONTACTED A TOYOTA DEALERSHIP EXPECTING THERE IS SOME SORT OF RECALL ON THESE SPRINGS, THEY SAID NO, BUT THERE WAS A 'TECHNICAL BULLETIN' FOR REPLACEMENT OF THESE SPRINGS. TOYOTA WOULD NOT PAY FOR THE REPLACEMENT, EXCEPT IF UNDER WARRANTY. (MY WARRANTY EXPIRED AT 100,000 MILES) THEY WANTED $345 EACH SIDE, PLUS LABOR TO HAVE THE PROBLEM FIXED. THERE WAS NO WAY I COULD AFFORD IT. I DROVE AROUND W
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 426683 |
| ODI Number | 10033425 |
| Date Filed | August 25, 2003 |
| Failure Date | March 9, 2002 |
Similar SUSPENSION:REAR:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:LEAF Complaints for 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA
BROKEN REAR DRIVER SIDE LEAF SPRINGS ON 1996 TOYOTA TACOMA 4WD EXTENDED CAB LED TO POOR VEHICULAR CONTROL AND TIRE DAMAGE*AK
REAR LEAF SPRING ON PASSENGER SIDE (# 2 LEAF) HAS CRACKED, LEADING TO UNPREDICTABLE REAR SUSPESION BEHAVIOR OVER BUMPS. THIS IS A WIDELY KNOWN PROBLEM. TOYOTA IS AWARE THAT THERE IS A HIGH FAILURE R
NOTICED RIGHT REAR WHEEL BOUNCE, INVESTIGATED NOTICED MIDDLE LEAF PROTRUDING AND RUBBING ON SHOCK ABSORBER. CALLED TOYOTA ABOUT PROBLEM, THEY INDICATED THAT THEY WOULD NOT REPLACE IT, AND I HAD TO TA
THE MIDDLE LEAF SPRING ON MY TRUCK BROKE IN HALF. I BOUGHT REPLACEMENT SPRINGS AT LEXINGTON AUTO SPRINGS, THE SALESMAN TOLD ME THAT THEY HAVE ALREADY REPLACED THE REAR SPRINGS ON ABOUT 30 TACOMA'S (A
BOTH REAR LEAF SPRINGS CRACKED, THIS IS A PROBLEM TOYOTA IS AWARE OF BUT WON'T REPAIR AT THEIR EXPENSE, TOYOTA CLAIMS IT IS NOT DANGEROUS, PERHAPS AFTER FIRST DEATH THEY WILL TAKE NOTICE
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.